Downtown Buzz Graham Mall is...


News from the Downtown Winnipeg Business Improvement Zone


exciting Graham Avenue is emerging! Graham Avenue is a nine-block district


G


in the heart of downtown Winnipeg, paral- lel to the city’s major artery, which is Por- tage Avenue. Winnipeg Transit’s downtown services heavily rely on Graham Avenue, which was turned into a transit mall in 1995. Today, approximately 1,800 buses operate on the street each weekday and service over 100,000 transit users, which includes, office workers, students and more per day. Also known as Graham Mall, the District


is home to several large and small retail operations, restaurants and services, and is anchored by two shopping malls, Te Hudson Bay and Cityplace. The Mall is also home to a nineteenth century herit- age-designated church, the Royal Win- nipeg Ballet’s offices, studios, and student residence buildings. In addition, Graham Mall is also linked to downtown’s covered Skywalk and is in the heart of the newly formed Sports, Hospitality and Entertain- ment District (SHED). Te Economic Development/Planning objective was to utilize the Transit Mall as


raham Avenue is being transformed into one of Downtown’s most excit- ing, walkable districts and a new,


a driver for transit oriented development and storefront business start-ups, and over the last decade Graham Mall has seen a sig- nificant amount of development activity. Te city’s newly built Sport and Enter-


tainment Facility and the Bell MTS Place (home of the Winnipeg Jets), now draws over one million people back to the down- town area annually. Te refurbished Mil- lennium public library also draws over 1.5 million people per year, and the new Mani- toba Hydro head office building is home to over 2000 employees. Te renovation of the old Canada Post Depot into the new Public Safety Building has seen an added addition to the Mall with over 2000 staff members operating 24/7. Tese are just a few of the recent developments which have found a home on Graham Avenue. As a result of this development activity,


a good density of people are now visiting or working on Graham Avenue and side streets such as Kennedy and Edmonton Street are becoming popular places for small business start-ups. New restaurants, shops and cafés are beginning to emerge as well. In addition, buoyed by additional traf- fic generators such the Downtown Farmers’ Market, the area is starting to be seen as hip and happening.


In the next few years, Graham Avenue


will see the completion of True North Square, a $400 million mixed use devel- opment which will bring more residents, hotel guests and office workers to Graham Avenue than ever before. Te conversion of the Medical Art Build-


ing into a place for people to live, and the impending construction of SkyCity, a 40 story tower/condo development, among several other proposed re-developments will collectively bring a near billion dollars in investment to this District in the next 2-3 years alone, and 1000’s of more people.


downtownwinnipegbiz.com (204) 958-4640


info@downtownwinnipegbiz.com 426 Portage Avenue, Winnipeg, MB R3C 0C9 November 2017 www.smartbizwpg.com Smart Biz 7


Te added density of people, at all hours


of the day, will fill the sidewalks of Graham Avenue and once again drive the need for more on street retail, food and drink establishments. With this realization, there is the opportunity for the business community to better position itself to take advantage of the changes occurring, and ask itself: Graham Mall is…? We want to hear your ideas and thoughts


on what Graham Avenue is today and what you imagine it to be in the future. Share your comments today by visiting, http://down- townwinnipegbiz.com/graham-mall-is/.


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